Structural
UAV Benefits
- Identify roof or gutter damage from a storm
- Calculate surface area for materials
- Calculate volume of structures or piles
- Determine ground damage from construction
- Locate hot/cold spots with proper optics
- Inspect the top of a grain leg
Outside of agriculture, UAVs also offer many community development benefits, such as the inspection of:
- Real estate
- Power lines
- Infrastructure
- Wind turbines
- Radio towers
UAV Challenges
Collision: When flying near structures and objects, collision is the greatest risk to a UAV.
- Tip: Most UAVs have anti-collision features for structural inspection, but they have limitations. Know your aircraft and when to turn off those features.
Speed: Developing a stitched image of a structure requires many images, along with tight overlaps. This can be time-consuming.
- Tip: Always capture high-resolution images for accuracy. Setting ground-control points can improve accuracy as well.
Stitching: Structures such as power lines rarely align perfectly in a stitched image. It can also be difficult when stitching images with identical, or nearly identical, structures.
- Tip:Take additional images with tight overlaps. If it's still questionable, it may be best to forgo the stitching software and take a still image.